Scotland squad hopefuls David Turnbull and James Forrest impressed as Celtic swept aside a Covid-weakened St Johnstone in their penultimate Scottish Premiership game of the season.

Kris Ajer and Karamoko Dembele added late goals as second-placed Celtic eased to a comfortable win.

Scottish Cup finalists St Johnstone, without several players due to a coronavirus outbreak, remain in fifth place.

The Perth club’s manager Callum Davidson explained pre-match that his side had not trained since Sunday’s semi-final win over St Mirren, as they deal with a number of positive Covid cases at the club.

This also meant he was only able to name five substitutes.

Despite these setbacks it was the away side that started the better with James Brown glancing a Glenn Middleton cross just wide. Brown’s touch also diverted the ball away from the waiting Chris Kane.

Celtic enjoyed the lion’s share of possession but we’re unable to create anything of note before Zlamal’s error gave them their opening goal.

The former Hearts keeper collected an obvious backpass to earn a booking and give the home side an indirect freekick inside the opposition’s box. Turnbull stepped up to dispatch the ball after Ryan Christie’s lay-off.

The Scotland under-21 international this week said he was hoping to be in Steve Clarke’s 26-man squad for the Euros, which is named next week, and this performance will have done him no harm.

Before the away side could even comprehend the changes required to recover in the game, they found themselves 2-0 down.

Scott Brown, playing his last game at Celtic Park for the home side, stole the ball before playing a long searching pass up to Edouard. The French striker showed a touch of class to pluck the ball out of the sky before ghosting past Rooney and clipping over Zlamal.

That quick fire double brought Celtic to life as they proceeded to bombard the St Johnstone goal. Turnbull spurned a golden opportunity just before the half was up as his curling effort from inside the box drifted wide.

It was then Forrest’s turn as he set up both Christie and Mohamed Elyounoussi, only for a combination of poor finishing and good defending to keep the score down.

The break did not provide much respite for St Johnstone as Celtic continued to look to extend their lead. Zlamal was again called into action to keep out Christie and Edouard early into the second period.

St Johnstone had their best opportunity of the night as Kane stole the ball from Brown before Middleton broke onto the ball only to see his effort blocked. The ball diverted out to Craig Conway but his shot was also blocked by 18 year-old debutant Adam Montgomery.

The game’s intensity began to fade as Celtic turned their attention to pay tribute to outgoing captain Brown as he was subbed off with 25 minutes left to play.

Forrest continued to feature prevalently as he delivered a series of dangerous crosses, only for Rooney to pull off another goal saving block to prevent Edouard from registering his second on the night.

The result was confirmed when Ajer’s shot from inside the box deflected off the underside of Jason Kerr’s boot before looping over the helpless Zlamal.

And Dembele added a fourth in the final moments as he was played in down the right hand side by Turnbull before finishing neatly underneath the St Johnstone keeper.

Man of the match – David Turnbull

What did we learn?

This season has been effectively over for quite some time for Celtic, but if there was ever any doubt about who the new manager should build his team around they have been quashed with Turnbull’s performances this term.

The calls for his inclusion at the Euros will only increase as he also won his side’s player and young player of the year awards on a productive night.

It finished as a tough evening for St Johnstone but it’s no slight on their season overall. Dealing with Covid issues and having not trained meant it was always going to be a big task at Celtic Park.

Their focus must be on getting their squad fit and back together before the cup final. They remain in fifth and will play in a straight shoot-out for the position when they face Livingston at the weekend.

What’s next?

Celtic finish their season away to Hibernian on Saturday (12:30 BST) while St Johnstone’s final league game of the season is at home to Livingston on the same day (12:30).